The Mystery Of Potential

0:00:01.560 --> 0:00:04.120 Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation 0:00:04.360 --> 0:00:06.600 Church and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank 0:00:06.640 --> 0:00:09.960 you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope 0:00:09.960 --> 0:00:12.000 it builds your faith. Hope it gives your perspective to 0:00:12.000 --> 0:00:18.280 see God is moving in your life. Enjoy the message. 0:00:18.880 --> 0:00:23.040 Let's take just a moment Valentine and engage our responsibility 0:00:23.040 --> 0:00:26.800 and privilege to welcome our efam watching around the world 0:00:27.520 --> 0:00:36.159 on the Elevation app, YouTube, Facebook. I want to see 0:00:36.159 --> 0:00:38.559 who's watching. Somebody bring me a phone with YouTube on it. 0:00:38.640 --> 0:00:40.720 I did this at eleven thirty last week. It was 0:00:42.680 --> 0:00:45.240 I must see if you'll trust me with your phone. 0:00:46.280 --> 0:00:47.760 Do you know how much trouble I could get you 0:00:47.800 --> 0:00:51.479 in with your phone in five minutes? How many texts 0:00:51.479 --> 0:00:57.200 I could send on your behalf, how many bad influences 0:00:57.200 --> 0:01:00.880 I could block off your phone. Give me five minutes 0:01:00.880 --> 0:01:02.680 with your phone. I'll fix your future. I'll get you 0:01:02.720 --> 0:01:08.360 into college. I'll break up with him so you don't 0:01:08.360 --> 0:01:15.360 have to. I'll put a kissy face on it. Let's 0:01:15.360 --> 0:01:18.280 see YouTube. Tell me where are you watching from in 0:01:18.319 --> 0:01:24.120 the world? Just put your city, state, hamlet. How many 0:01:24.160 --> 0:01:28.399 y'all grew up in a hamlet. Don't we love this 0:01:28.560 --> 0:01:34.320 choir and the energy that they bring. Hello, Puerto Rico, Iowa. Whoa, 0:01:34.319 --> 0:01:37.160 it's going fast, New Zealand. Oh, I can't keep up. 0:01:37.200 --> 0:01:44.280 Look how fastest scrolling Gaithersburg, Maryland, New York City, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Brussels, Houston, 0:01:44.319 --> 0:01:50.960 North Dakota, Miami, Ridgeland, Tampa Bay, Philadelphia, South Korea, Missouri, 0:01:51.680 --> 0:02:06.320 all kinds of countries, Pakistan, Oregon, South Africa, India, Singapore, Guatemala, Milwaukee, 0:02:06.920 --> 0:02:15.560 Las Vegas, Topeka, Indonesia, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Chattanooga, Vermont, Philippines, Charlotte, 0:02:15.600 --> 0:02:19.720 North Carolina. We'll bring you greetings in the name of 0:02:19.800 --> 0:02:33.200 Jesus Christ. Scotland, China, Brazil, Ethiopia, France, Lithuania, Costa Rica. 0:02:33.960 --> 0:02:38.359 You got a message. I'm gonna give this back. Now, 0:02:38.400 --> 0:02:40.520 come take this. Come on, Let's thank God for all 0:02:40.560 --> 0:02:46.959 those all over the world joining. I said, worship, Thank you, lou. 0:02:47.360 --> 0:02:50.120 She's gonna be preaching soon. I'm gonna give her the 0:02:50.120 --> 0:02:52.880 mic soon and turn her loose, but not today. Today. 0:02:52.919 --> 0:02:55.440 I got this. You can relax. How many are ready 0:02:55.440 --> 0:03:03.560 for the word of God. I want to encourage you 0:03:03.639 --> 0:03:06.760 to stay up late on this Thursday night Eastern Standard 0:03:06.840 --> 0:03:09.960 time midnight the beginning of one thing, the end of another. 0:03:10.360 --> 0:03:14.320 And we're releasing five songs called at Midnight because Paul 0:03:14.360 --> 0:03:17.000 and Silas knew what to do in a desperate situation. 0:03:17.600 --> 0:03:20.000 And when we sing together and join together and praise 0:03:20.080 --> 0:03:23.200 God together, it creates freedom and our spirits, and it 0:03:23.280 --> 0:03:26.520 often creates change in our situation. But I want you 0:03:26.560 --> 0:03:28.240 to be a part of that. All of our watch 0:03:28.320 --> 0:03:31.440 parties around the world at midnight, I'm going to need 0:03:31.520 --> 0:03:35.680 you to caffeinate and plan accordingly. For some of you, 0:03:35.720 --> 0:03:37.600 it's going to be a bigger miracle than a jail 0:03:37.640 --> 0:03:40.560 break for you to stay up till midnight. But we're 0:03:40.560 --> 0:03:44.200 believing God for supernatural energy for you, and stay up 0:03:44.200 --> 0:03:48.240 at midnight and put it on Instagram and Facebook, put 0:03:48.240 --> 0:03:54.320 it on MySpace. You hear me, young people, and let 0:03:54.400 --> 0:03:59.520 us know where you're watching. From Ecclesiastes, chapter eleven, I 0:03:59.600 --> 0:04:01.880 want to ten year conversation that I began with our 0:04:01.880 --> 0:04:06.600 Matthew's campus on Thursday night. This message is called the 0:04:06.640 --> 0:04:11.400 Mystery of Potential. How many no God has put things 0:04:11.400 --> 0:04:16.720 inside of you that your eyes haven't seen. Yet God 0:04:16.760 --> 0:04:19.200 put things inside of you that your parents didn't even 0:04:19.240 --> 0:04:22.560 know about. And so I want to speak on those 0:04:22.600 --> 0:04:26.120 things today. From Ecclesiastes eleven, verse five and six. As 0:04:26.160 --> 0:04:28.120 you do not know the way the spirit comes to 0:04:28.200 --> 0:04:30.240 the bones in the womb of a woman with child, 0:04:30.839 --> 0:04:33.479 So you do not know the work of God who 0:04:33.480 --> 0:04:36.720 makes everything. In the morning, sow your seed, and at 0:04:36.800 --> 0:04:41.680 evening withhold not your hand, for you do not know. 0:04:43.240 --> 0:04:46.880 He said that in both verses it must be important. Solomon, 0:04:46.920 --> 0:04:49.880 the wisest man in the world, speaking about human ignorance, 0:04:50.560 --> 0:04:53.600 that even after all he learned, accomplished, and every success 0:04:53.640 --> 0:04:56.800 that he achieved. His common theme in this book is 0:04:57.279 --> 0:05:02.960 you do not know a mystery. And he said that 0:05:03.800 --> 0:05:07.000 one might prosper that you count out. And so since 0:05:07.040 --> 0:05:11.840 you don't know, keep sowing. Since you don't know, keep sowing, 0:05:12.720 --> 0:05:15.320 for you do not know which will prosper this or that, 0:05:16.000 --> 0:05:21.120 or whether both. Somebody say both, whether both alike will 0:05:21.560 --> 0:05:25.479 be good. Lord, This is your word, and so we 0:05:25.560 --> 0:05:29.200 do not ask you to make it true. It already is. 0:05:29.880 --> 0:05:33.160 Get it in our hearts, past all the falsehood distractions 0:05:33.160 --> 0:05:35.960 and deceit, so it can become flesh in our lives. 0:05:35.960 --> 0:05:45.960 In Jesus' name, Amen, you may be seated in using 0:05:46.560 --> 0:05:52.200 these two different analogies for the revelation of potential. The 0:05:52.240 --> 0:05:55.880 commonality is that there is a process by which anything 0:05:56.000 --> 0:06:00.719 must be fertilized. Whether it's human life or whether it's 0:06:01.080 --> 0:06:06.960 a seed that will become sustenance, it must undergo a 0:06:07.000 --> 0:06:10.719 process of fertilization. And I don't think I need to 0:06:10.720 --> 0:06:12.599 have the birds and the bees talk. If your parents 0:06:12.640 --> 0:06:15.680 didn't do that by now, it's not my job. But 0:06:15.920 --> 0:06:18.599 he talks about how in the womb of a woman 0:06:18.680 --> 0:06:22.200 there is a process and a part of human pregnancy 0:06:22.560 --> 0:06:27.720 that can be explained or that can be anatomically identified. 0:06:27.800 --> 0:06:30.000 And then there is another part which he calls the 0:06:30.040 --> 0:06:34.359 spirit entering the bones or the breath the Rua and Hebrew, 0:06:34.440 --> 0:06:37.320 it's the same word. When you hear spirit of God, 0:06:37.400 --> 0:06:39.799 you can also think breath of God. Both are correct, 0:06:40.560 --> 0:06:43.800 and it's the same word because it's the same process. 0:06:44.600 --> 0:06:48.280 Anything God breathes on comes to life. And if there's 0:06:48.320 --> 0:06:50.600 anything you need God to breathe on today, you are 0:06:50.600 --> 0:06:53.800 in His presence and anything is possible. As a matter 0:06:53.839 --> 0:06:56.280 of fact, the way this whole project called you got 0:06:56.320 --> 0:07:00.760 started was God breathed on something dirty, the dust of 0:07:00.800 --> 0:07:03.560 the earth, And when he breathed on it, he breathed 0:07:03.560 --> 0:07:06.400 into man the breath of life. So there is the 0:07:06.440 --> 0:07:09.680 bones and there is the breath. One of those can 0:07:09.720 --> 0:07:12.400 be explained and perceived with human eyes. And if there's 0:07:12.440 --> 0:07:14.720 anybody in overflow, I don't know if there is. We 0:07:14.840 --> 0:07:18.240 got two premium seats on the landing at Valentine. So 0:07:18.400 --> 0:07:20.880 bring in two people who traveled and had to sit 0:07:20.920 --> 0:07:23.280 and overflow and give them those seats. If it's a 0:07:23.360 --> 0:07:25.960 husband and a wife, or if it's two single people 0:07:25.960 --> 0:07:28.080 that look like they like each other out there in overflow, 0:07:28.120 --> 0:07:30.560 put them in those two seats. Let's see what God 0:07:30.600 --> 0:07:33.960 can do. Because when God brings things together and breathes 0:07:34.000 --> 0:07:39.840 into things, the limit of God's potential is only your belief, 0:07:39.920 --> 0:07:42.680 because God is so big and so great, and the 0:07:42.720 --> 0:07:46.320 only thing that ever limits him is what you believe 0:07:46.360 --> 0:07:48.119 he can do. And you know a lot of people 0:07:48.120 --> 0:07:50.680 will say, well, nothing limits God. He's God, and of 0:07:50.720 --> 0:07:54.720 course he is God. But God breathes into things. And 0:07:54.720 --> 0:07:57.600 when God breathes into things, it's so important that we 0:07:57.640 --> 0:08:01.640 receive it. When he breathes. Amen, how many of you 0:08:01.640 --> 0:08:06.160 are firstborn children. Firstborn children. Come on, let's give it 0:08:06.240 --> 0:08:12.400 up for ourselves. Come on, give it up for me 0:08:12.480 --> 0:08:20.360 and you because we were our parents' experiment. I think 0:08:20.440 --> 0:08:22.720 when you're having a child, and I don't have a 0:08:22.760 --> 0:08:26.040 lot of parenting advice, but this is one thing I 0:08:26.080 --> 0:08:28.160 do think is pretty good and I may write a 0:08:28.160 --> 0:08:31.240 book about this. When you have your first child, you know, 0:08:31.560 --> 0:08:34.800 you create a college fund for your Yeah, you create 0:08:34.800 --> 0:08:37.240 a college fund for your kids, but for your firstborn, 0:08:37.559 --> 0:08:41.440 you need to also create a therapy fund. Just go 0:08:41.480 --> 0:08:43.720 ahead and start it. Put it in a put it 0:08:43.760 --> 0:08:48.560 in an index fund or something. Because you are you 0:08:48.640 --> 0:08:52.480 are learning things on them that the other ones. I mean, 0:08:52.559 --> 0:08:54.960 it's kind of rough with your firstborn because you put 0:08:55.000 --> 0:08:58.880 all your hopes and dreams and fantasies and projections of 0:08:59.000 --> 0:09:02.760 parenthood on that poor I'll never forget when Elijah, you know, 0:09:02.840 --> 0:09:06.440 he's coming home from the hospital, I'm driving seventeen miles 0:09:06.480 --> 0:09:10.520 an hour on four eighty five, just you know. And 0:09:10.559 --> 0:09:13.080 by the time I became who was the third you know, 0:09:13.160 --> 0:09:16.880 I just center home in an uber It's just because 0:09:16.920 --> 0:09:20.680 I got this now. But on the first one, you're 0:09:20.760 --> 0:09:24.319 learning everything, so you're like totally overprotective, and sometimes you're 0:09:24.360 --> 0:09:27.880 overly ambitious, and so anything the kid does, you're like, oh, 0:09:27.920 --> 0:09:30.200 my god, did you He just played the piano like 0:09:30.280 --> 0:09:32.640 walks by and bangs it, and you think he's Mozart 0:09:32.840 --> 0:09:35.800 because you see potential. Sometimes it's not there. When Elijah 0:09:35.880 --> 0:09:39.200 first started playing baseball, I remember when he was on 0:09:39.240 --> 0:09:42.400 this coach pitch team, and the coach pitch league is 0:09:42.720 --> 0:09:46.120 kind of deceptive because the pitcher is working with you, 0:09:47.480 --> 0:09:50.360 which is the opposite of real baseball, but the pitcher 0:09:50.400 --> 0:09:53.080 wants you to hit it. And I was trying to 0:09:53.080 --> 0:09:55.600 figure out how to help Elijah with baseball because I 0:09:55.600 --> 0:09:57.600 played baseball a little bit. My dad coached me, but 0:09:57.679 --> 0:09:59.400 I don't know a lot about it. And I found 0:09:59.440 --> 0:10:03.880 out one of the grandparents there was a former scout 0:10:04.120 --> 0:10:07.480 for minor league baseball, and he walked over to me 0:10:07.640 --> 0:10:11.360 one game in the middle of the season and goes, hey, 0:10:11.360 --> 0:10:13.199 that's your boy out there. I said yeah. He said 0:10:13.480 --> 0:10:18.200 he's pretty good. It's got potential, and I was like, 0:10:19.080 --> 0:10:27.760 for real, like how much potential? You know, like you 0:10:27.800 --> 0:10:31.760 think he's like like a future And I couldn't even 0:10:31.800 --> 0:10:34.840 get the whole sentence out, and he interrupted me and 0:10:35.120 --> 0:10:37.080 said something to me, I believe God wants to say 0:10:37.080 --> 0:10:39.800 to some of you. He said, it's too soon to tell. 0:10:42.840 --> 0:10:45.720 In other words, I was just trying to be polite 0:10:46.520 --> 0:10:48.480 and say that your kid has a good swing and 0:10:48.640 --> 0:10:51.440 encourage you to keep it up as a dad. It's 0:10:51.520 --> 0:10:55.240 way too soon to tell you know, whether or not 0:10:55.360 --> 0:10:59.440 you should start looking for an agent. Okay, he's just 0:10:59.480 --> 0:11:02.800 got a good swing, But don't we always want to 0:11:02.840 --> 0:11:06.440 know so soon. How we post stuff and if people 0:11:06.520 --> 0:11:09.400 don't like it in two minutes, we feel the pressure 0:11:09.440 --> 0:11:11.440 to delete it because maybe the picture wasn't as good 0:11:11.480 --> 0:11:13.600 as I thought it was, you know, like it's the 0:11:13.640 --> 0:11:15.800 worst thing in the world. How we live in this 0:11:15.920 --> 0:11:20.679 age of instant validation where we just expect every opinion 0:11:20.760 --> 0:11:24.160 to be accepted just quickly. And if it doesn't happen quickly, 0:11:24.640 --> 0:11:28.000 if it doesn't happen just like that, if it doesn't 0:11:28.080 --> 0:11:31.000 just turn around by Friday, if within our first week 0:11:31.080 --> 0:11:34.400 back at the gym in January it doesn't melt off, 0:11:34.720 --> 0:11:37.560 we will cancel the gym membership and talk about the 0:11:37.559 --> 0:11:40.599 fact that the machines weren't right. But it wasn't the machines, 0:11:40.960 --> 0:11:44.480 it was our consistency and our deep down need to 0:11:44.520 --> 0:11:47.680 see it happen so quick. The man said, it's too 0:11:47.800 --> 0:11:51.480 soon to tell, and Solomon said the same thing. He said, 0:11:51.520 --> 0:11:53.840 there are some things in your life that are like 0:11:53.920 --> 0:11:57.240 the bones that are waiting on the breath, and you 0:11:57.360 --> 0:11:59.600 don't know the way God is going to work in 0:11:59.640 --> 0:12:03.240 your city situation. And it is always too soon for 0:12:03.280 --> 0:12:05.960 you to quit on something that God put on the 0:12:05.960 --> 0:12:09.120 inside of you. If He gave you a dream, is 0:12:09.200 --> 0:12:11.960 too soon to walk away from it just because it 0:12:12.000 --> 0:12:15.200 doesn't manifest in three dimensions by the time you get 0:12:15.200 --> 0:12:18.640 done praying about it. So that's what we talked about today, 0:12:18.640 --> 0:12:24.800 the mystery of potential and how it's too soon to tell, 0:12:25.840 --> 0:12:29.920 and how the only way that potential can be revealed 0:12:30.760 --> 0:12:36.880 is for process to be embraced. Y'all with me today. 0:12:38.760 --> 0:12:42.560 I never know. I never know how a sermon is 0:12:42.600 --> 0:12:46.959 going to affect people, and even after I preach it, 0:12:46.960 --> 0:12:51.160 it's difficult for me to discern the impact of it. 0:12:52.480 --> 0:12:55.160 I guess I could go off of a reaction base. 0:12:55.240 --> 0:12:57.640 But I went to a Panthers game one time and 0:12:57.679 --> 0:12:59.720 a lady was in front of me yelling the whole time. 0:12:59.760 --> 0:13:01.920 But she left in the fourth quarter, because sometimes the 0:13:01.960 --> 0:13:06.360 loudest or the first to leave. So I don't know 0:13:06.360 --> 0:13:08.840 how hard a sermon hit by how loud somebody gets 0:13:08.840 --> 0:13:11.720 about it. Feel free to be loud. I mean I 0:13:11.800 --> 0:13:13.640 like it loud. I really do like it loud. I'm 0:13:13.640 --> 0:13:15.360 a punk rocker at heart. But I don't know by 0:13:15.400 --> 0:13:20.240 how loud is, how deep it goes, is whether or 0:13:20.280 --> 0:13:24.160 not you get nicer to your wife after I preach. 0:13:24.760 --> 0:13:28.800 That shows how good my message got on love. I 0:13:28.800 --> 0:13:32.280 thought I would have a few amens from the higher 0:13:32.320 --> 0:13:41.240 register of the octave range. But you don't know. You 0:13:41.400 --> 0:13:47.600 really don't know. And the idea of human potential and 0:13:47.760 --> 0:13:51.079 a limitless God comes together in this text in a 0:13:51.120 --> 0:13:54.040 way that you can see several times throughout scripture in 0:13:54.120 --> 0:13:59.080 several examples. And whether we would talk about Peter who 0:13:59.160 --> 0:14:00.959 had to cast as an on the other side of 0:14:01.000 --> 0:14:04.720 the boat after he's spent all night catching nothing. The 0:14:04.760 --> 0:14:10.000 potential was there, but until the command was given from 0:14:10.120 --> 0:14:12.640 Jesus at the place of his frustration. I called this 0:14:12.679 --> 0:14:15.720 message the mystery of potential because I thought it sounded good. 0:14:16.280 --> 0:14:18.920 I could have just as easily called it the misery 0:14:19.600 --> 0:14:24.320 of potential, and we could preach about that too, because 0:14:24.360 --> 0:14:26.880 when you're young and people tell you you have potential, 0:14:27.560 --> 0:14:31.120 it's a compliment and it makes you feel hopeful. By 0:14:31.160 --> 0:14:34.000 the time you're sixty five and people are saying, you know, 0:14:34.120 --> 0:14:38.920 you have a lot of potential, it's depressing because by 0:14:38.960 --> 0:14:41.240 the time I'm sixty five, I don't need potential. I 0:14:41.280 --> 0:14:46.040 need kinetic. Potential doesn't pay the bills. Potential doesn't put 0:14:46.080 --> 0:14:47.760 a ring on my finger. Oh, you're going to be 0:14:47.800 --> 0:14:49.400 a good wife. Well, I'd like to be a good 0:14:49.400 --> 0:14:51.480 wife three years ago. If I'm a good wife, where's 0:14:51.520 --> 0:14:53.480 my good man? I come to church and I walk 0:14:53.560 --> 0:14:55.920 past all these men, but they're all past a bunch 0:14:55.920 --> 0:14:58.440 of Christian men. We'll never give anybody a hug praying 0:14:58.480 --> 0:15:00.760 for a wife instead of asking one out there Starbucks. 0:15:01.040 --> 0:15:06.800 I can't do anything in potential that seemed like that 0:15:06.840 --> 0:15:16.040 one hit. You know, you can never know the potential 0:15:16.080 --> 0:15:23.080 of a seed by looking at it, Hey, little seed. 0:15:25.040 --> 0:15:27.880 You know, you pray over a seed, you still won't 0:15:27.920 --> 0:15:32.440 know its potential. You can study the history of seeds, 0:15:33.200 --> 0:15:37.360 and although you might intellectually grasp its potential or comprehend 0:15:37.360 --> 0:15:40.720 what it contains, the only way to really know the 0:15:40.760 --> 0:15:46.200 potential is to plant it, and could it be that 0:15:46.320 --> 0:15:50.120 in your life and in my life right now there 0:15:50.160 --> 0:15:55.640 is potential that has not been planted. And so while 0:15:55.680 --> 0:16:00.280 we are frustrated about what our lives are missing, it's 0:16:00.400 --> 0:16:05.080 already in us in an immature form, and until we 0:16:05.320 --> 0:16:11.000 sow it, we will never know what it could have been. Now, 0:16:11.040 --> 0:16:15.480 I believe all over this house today there are starving seeds. 0:16:17.280 --> 0:16:21.800 There are things, gifts, abilities, thoughts, ideas wisdom that God 0:16:21.800 --> 0:16:24.800 has put in us, but it will not be shown 0:16:25.840 --> 0:16:29.760 until it is sown. Can I preach like I'm Doctor Seuss. 0:16:30.320 --> 0:16:34.160 My rhymes are on points so far you will never 0:16:34.560 --> 0:16:39.080 see it until you sow it. And so while we're praying, 0:16:39.280 --> 0:16:43.000 God show me my potential, and we're taking personality test 0:16:43.080 --> 0:16:46.760 which are fine. God bless Myers Briggs, whoever he is. 0:16:47.600 --> 0:16:51.320 God bless the Enneagraam Holly reads all that stuff to me. 0:16:51.400 --> 0:16:53.880 She tells me, I'm a one and she's a nine, 0:16:54.120 --> 0:16:56.480 and the one in the nine go together, and my 0:16:56.600 --> 0:16:59.160 one and her nine make a perfect five or something 0:16:59.200 --> 0:17:01.840 like that. Know how it works. I like all of it. 0:17:02.000 --> 0:17:04.439 But the truth of the matter is you can't bubble 0:17:04.480 --> 0:17:07.760 in a test and find out what's in you. You 0:17:07.800 --> 0:17:10.680 can't go on a journey of self discovery and find 0:17:10.680 --> 0:17:13.760 out what's in you, because watch this. Until the seed 0:17:13.840 --> 0:17:18.080 is sacrificed, until it goes into something bigger called the ground, 0:17:18.480 --> 0:17:21.840 until it breaks open to accomplish something, you'll never know 0:17:21.920 --> 0:17:27.560 what was in it. And when you live a selfish life, 0:17:27.640 --> 0:17:31.280 a safe life, and you don't sow it, you will 0:17:31.359 --> 0:17:35.840 never know. The enemy has got some of us so selfish, 0:17:35.920 --> 0:17:42.080 so discouraged, that our seeds are starving not for the 0:17:42.160 --> 0:17:45.760 lack of potential, but for the lack of process. So 0:17:45.840 --> 0:17:49.159 like think about Elisha plowing in a field in One 0:17:49.400 --> 0:17:54.280 Kings nineteen, just as an illustration, and he's plowing verse nineteen. 0:17:54.600 --> 0:17:58.200 He's plowing in a field with a yoke of oxen. 0:17:58.440 --> 0:18:02.200 There it is. He's plow with twelve yokovocxen in front 0:18:02.200 --> 0:18:06.600 of him. He's not posing in front of the plow. 0:18:11.320 --> 0:18:22.520 He's not posting on my plow. He's just plowing. He's 0:18:22.640 --> 0:18:27.159 just plowing. And a lot of times we will confuse 0:18:27.320 --> 0:18:30.640 the fact that we don't have good ground in our life, 0:18:30.640 --> 0:18:34.719 that is good opportunities. But maybe it's good ground and 0:18:34.760 --> 0:18:39.840 it's just unplowed and I wonder sometimes the things that 0:18:39.880 --> 0:18:42.480 we go through that are hard for us is not 0:18:42.600 --> 0:18:46.280 the enemy attacking us, but it is God plowing us 0:18:46.720 --> 0:18:49.800 to make the ground ready, to make our hearts ready, 0:18:50.080 --> 0:18:53.240 to make our wills ready. So we won't be arrogant 0:18:53.320 --> 0:18:56.800 and prideful, but we will have a plowed heart. And 0:18:56.880 --> 0:18:59.160 I don't know who this is for, but a lot 0:18:59.200 --> 0:19:01.800 of the things that you been praying away, God is 0:19:01.880 --> 0:19:07.080 plowing into and it's God's plowing process, just like Elisha 0:19:07.200 --> 0:19:10.119 had been plowing the crown. I believe God had been 0:19:10.200 --> 0:19:13.359 plowing Elisha, and I believe he's been plowing some of 0:19:13.440 --> 0:19:17.479 us and getting our ground ready and getting our hearts ready. 0:19:17.760 --> 0:19:20.800 Because sometimes if God visits us too soon with an 0:19:20.840 --> 0:19:24.400 opportunity that life has not prepared us for, we will 0:19:24.440 --> 0:19:27.200 not only ruin the opportunity, but we will hurt others 0:19:27.240 --> 0:19:30.240 in the process. So I don't want my heart to 0:19:30.280 --> 0:19:35.600 be unplowed ground. But I'm getting ahead of myself here, 0:19:37.640 --> 0:19:42.520 because this message is not just about plowing, it's about planting. 0:19:45.080 --> 0:19:48.199 And really, what I wanted to say is you have 0:19:48.400 --> 0:19:52.960 no idea what your encouragement can be until you plant it, 0:19:54.160 --> 0:20:01.000 what your smile can be until you plant it and planted. 0:20:02.080 --> 0:20:09.960 For me, it's theoretical for a farmer, it's practical. I 0:20:10.000 --> 0:20:14.800 read it as a metaphor planted. But really, this process 0:20:14.840 --> 0:20:18.600 Solomon is describing in an agricultural society would hit home 0:20:18.840 --> 0:20:22.400 like it would be like saying, like an iPad because 0:20:22.440 --> 0:20:24.000 there were so many more. You got to understand. The 0:20:24.040 --> 0:20:27.520 Bible was written in the context of its culture, and 0:20:27.600 --> 0:20:29.960 so it'd be like Sam'd be like this, I would 0:20:29.960 --> 0:20:31.639 sit next to a man on an airplane and this 0:20:31.640 --> 0:20:34.720 actually happened, Okay, true story. And I just got my iPad. 0:20:34.760 --> 0:20:38.399 This was years ago, and I was so proud to 0:20:38.400 --> 0:20:40.959 be one of the first people with an iPad and 0:20:41.000 --> 0:20:44.560 it had just come out, and we sent an intern 0:20:44.840 --> 0:20:48.280 to the Apple store to get one of the first iPads, okay, 0:20:48.560 --> 0:20:51.000 and I let them buy themselves something too, Okay, so 0:20:51.359 --> 0:20:53.280 I hooked them up. But the thing is I wanted 0:20:53.280 --> 0:20:55.680 to have one of the first iPads because Levi Lusco 0:20:56.200 --> 0:20:58.159 was telling me, you got to get an iPad. Bro. 0:20:58.560 --> 0:21:00.719 He's like, totally. You know my friend Leve, he's been 0:21:00.720 --> 0:21:02.640 here to preach. You got to try, sir, Rocha, Bro. 0:21:02.840 --> 0:21:05.120 You got to get this new bracelet for your workout, Bro, 0:21:05.240 --> 0:21:06.800 you got to get an iPad. He's always telling me 0:21:06.840 --> 0:21:08.560 to get something I'll already have. Always make me feel 0:21:08.560 --> 0:21:10.119 like my life is missing something. He's some kind of 0:21:10.160 --> 0:21:13.200 marketer from the pit of Hell. My loving You gotta 0:21:13.200 --> 0:21:15.959 get an iPad, bro, It's beautiful. It's just the technology 0:21:16.040 --> 0:21:19.680 is beautiful. So I have my iPad and the guy 0:21:19.760 --> 0:21:22.080 next to me had an iPad too, and so we 0:21:22.160 --> 0:21:26.359 felt like a connection. And he goes, how you like 0:21:26.400 --> 0:21:28.760 your iPad. I was like, I don't know. I just 0:21:28.800 --> 0:21:33.280 got it. He goes, I've had mine a week. I 0:21:33.320 --> 0:21:36.480 was like, they just came out yesterday. He said, I 0:21:36.520 --> 0:21:42.280 got Connections and Apple. I was like, oh, I got 0:21:42.280 --> 0:21:47.280 an intern send him to the Apple store. He goes, 0:21:47.480 --> 0:21:50.159 so what are you planning to use it for. I 0:21:50.200 --> 0:21:52.520 was like, well, I'm a preacher, so I'm a preacher 0:21:52.520 --> 0:21:59.560 my sermons from it. He goes, what else. I was like, 0:21:59.600 --> 0:22:03.359 I don't know what else. That's it, really, I guess. 0:22:06.200 --> 0:22:10.760 And he got this look on his face, like disgusted, 0:22:13.440 --> 0:22:16.920 like disappointment in somebody that a minute ago he felt 0:22:16.920 --> 0:22:21.159 an affinity for, but now he just felt nothing but 0:22:21.400 --> 0:22:24.479 deep total sadness and loss at what could have been 0:22:24.480 --> 0:22:31.200 a great relationship. He goes, you are using that device 0:22:31.680 --> 0:22:35.879 so far beneath its potential, and we didn't speak the 0:22:35.920 --> 0:22:39.280 rest of the flight. I didn't know what to say back. 0:22:39.960 --> 0:22:43.399 I'm so sorry, man, I just don't you know. Every 0:22:43.440 --> 0:22:45.960 time I opened the iPad, I think about what it 0:22:46.000 --> 0:22:49.520 could do, and I think about what's on it and 0:22:49.520 --> 0:22:52.080 what it could connect to through the Wi Fi connection. 0:22:52.200 --> 0:22:55.720 I think about everything that it could do that it's 0:22:55.800 --> 0:22:59.080 not doing. I think about the potential of it. I 0:22:59.119 --> 0:23:02.199 think about everything that's in some of the people that 0:23:02.240 --> 0:23:06.679 I get to preach to, everything that is in you 0:23:06.800 --> 0:23:10.879 that you haven't accessed, and everything that's in you that 0:23:11.840 --> 0:23:14.640 got buried, that got covered up. But the thing about 0:23:14.760 --> 0:23:18.440 dirt is it can also bring out potential. The thing 0:23:18.480 --> 0:23:21.240 about a seed when it goes into the ground, Remember 0:23:21.560 --> 0:23:24.640 it doesn't go into the ground to die. It goes 0:23:24.680 --> 0:23:27.720 into the ground to multiply. Some of y'all know what 0:23:27.760 --> 0:23:30.640 I'm talking about, because you had a failure in your 0:23:30.680 --> 0:23:34.040 life and people wrote you off, and people walked away, 0:23:34.440 --> 0:23:36.840 and it seemed like it was over. But you gave 0:23:36.880 --> 0:23:39.320 it a little time, and you gave it a little water, 0:23:39.600 --> 0:23:41.920 and you gave it a little trust, and you kept 0:23:41.920 --> 0:23:46.080 coming to church, and somehow, some way God turned pain 0:23:46.160 --> 0:23:49.240 into potential. Now, if you ever fished all night and 0:23:49.359 --> 0:23:52.280 caught nothing, but you cast your nets on the other 0:23:52.400 --> 0:23:55.480 side and hauled in a bucket full, I need you 0:23:55.520 --> 0:24:04.320 to shout right now that there's so much more. It's 0:24:04.359 --> 0:24:10.720 the mystery. Elisha is flowing and Elijah says something to him. 0:24:10.920 --> 0:24:13.280 He says, well, actually he says it with an action, 0:24:13.440 --> 0:24:19.600 not with words. He throws his cloak on Elisha, which 0:24:19.680 --> 0:24:27.119 represents the potential for miracles. And when Elijah's cloak, remember 0:24:27.200 --> 0:24:34.080 he's the great miracle worker who stood before Ahab, who 0:24:34.480 --> 0:24:39.920 ran from Jezebel, and who found Elisha plowing in a field. 0:24:40.720 --> 0:24:48.040 And he throws his mantle, the symbol of potential. I 0:24:48.080 --> 0:24:50.000 don't know who this is for, but God is throwing 0:24:50.040 --> 0:24:54.080 something your way today. I wish I could throw this 0:24:54.160 --> 0:24:56.680 microphone right at your forehead so you would just get it. 0:24:58.240 --> 0:25:05.800 But it's expensive, and he doesn't say much about it. 0:25:05.800 --> 0:25:13.600 It's very mysterious. It's very mysterious. And when Elisha receives 0:25:13.640 --> 0:25:16.760 that mantle, he doesn't immediately perform a miracle. In fact, 0:25:17.640 --> 0:25:21.359 let me tell you how mysterious potential is We don't 0:25:21.720 --> 0:25:27.960 hear Elisha's name again until Sewod King's chapter two, which 0:25:28.000 --> 0:25:33.879 many tell us was thirteen years after his potential was 0:25:33.920 --> 0:25:38.720 first suggested. But his potential was not revealed until he 0:25:38.760 --> 0:25:42.840 would take that same cloak and strike the water with it. 0:25:43.760 --> 0:25:49.800 After a long season of obedience, y'all got to know 0:25:49.800 --> 0:25:54.800 where to shout. That's where to shout, because that's where 0:25:54.800 --> 0:26:02.480 potential is proven. When it is planted. Planted, it's on 0:26:02.600 --> 0:26:05.800 the device, but it can only be retrieved from the 0:26:05.840 --> 0:26:10.719 device through a process of connection. And this process of 0:26:10.800 --> 0:26:16.000 connection in seed speak, revolves around planting, which makes me 0:26:16.080 --> 0:26:19.280 think first of all, of the sower, because when the 0:26:19.320 --> 0:26:23.880 sower plants a seed, Remember, farmers don't have funeral over 0:26:24.000 --> 0:26:29.000 seed that they scatter. Instead, they have expectation to see 0:26:29.000 --> 0:26:32.520 it again in a greater form later. So you're never 0:26:32.600 --> 0:26:35.680 really saying goodbye to anything that you give to God. 0:26:36.359 --> 0:26:40.919 You're really just opening your hands, which means that before 0:26:40.960 --> 0:26:46.359 you can receive anything, you have to release something. For 0:26:46.400 --> 0:26:48.720 those of you who like to take notes, you can 0:26:48.760 --> 0:26:53.800 write down the word release because process is revealed in potential, 0:26:54.359 --> 0:26:57.480 and potential is revealed in process and it comes a 0:26:57.480 --> 0:27:01.520 little bit along and along. But the first is to 0:27:01.600 --> 0:27:07.520 release the sewer. Must release the seed to see what 0:27:07.600 --> 0:27:12.040 it could be. I'm just wondering, is there something that 0:27:12.119 --> 0:27:16.760 you need to release in your life today? And could 0:27:16.760 --> 0:27:21.000 it be possible that you are looking at something, praying 0:27:21.040 --> 0:27:26.320 about something and trying to manipulate something that God wants 0:27:26.400 --> 0:27:29.959 you to release so that it can mature and manifest. 0:27:30.720 --> 0:27:33.120 And this is for all of us who are control freaks, 0:27:35.720 --> 0:27:40.520 because until we release it, it can't grow. Look at 0:27:40.560 --> 0:27:43.720 your neighbors, say let it go, tell them watch it grow. 0:27:45.480 --> 0:27:49.320 Let it go, watch it grow. But it can't grow 0:27:49.359 --> 0:27:54.360 if you're trying to control it. Right, is starving seeds 0:27:54.440 --> 0:27:58.440 and then is strangled seeds holding on so tight. Oh 0:27:58.560 --> 0:28:02.640 it's my time, it's my money. I feel so sorry 0:28:02.760 --> 0:28:07.439 for people who aren't generous. I feel so bad for 0:28:07.480 --> 0:28:11.240 you because all stinginess does is strangle to see that 0:28:11.320 --> 0:28:14.760 God has given you And if you could let it go, 0:28:15.680 --> 0:28:19.800 who knows what it could be. What if I just 0:28:19.880 --> 0:28:24.000 preach that sermon in the mirror, it would bounce right back. 0:28:25.000 --> 0:28:27.280 But if I put it out through that camera, it 0:28:27.359 --> 0:28:32.919 might hit Botswana and help somebody in their life. Or 0:28:33.000 --> 0:28:36.360 Bamberg South Carolina. I don't care. It is God's business 0:28:36.359 --> 0:28:40.040 where it goes. It's my job to sew it. And 0:28:40.120 --> 0:28:41.920 you got to sew it in the morning, sow it 0:28:41.960 --> 0:28:44.120 in the evening. So it when you feel it. Sow 0:28:44.160 --> 0:28:46.040 it when you don't. So when they cheer for you, 0:28:46.120 --> 0:28:48.720 So when they criticize you, sow it when they hosanna, 0:28:48.960 --> 0:28:50.680 and ShW it when they want to string you up. 0:28:50.880 --> 0:28:53.200 So when they notice, sow it when they don't, sow it, 0:28:53.400 --> 0:29:05.560 sew it, sew it. But just like you can't live 0:29:05.600 --> 0:29:09.200 your life not accessing everything that's on the device and 0:29:09.400 --> 0:29:12.280 expect to be a reflection of the image of God. 0:29:12.560 --> 0:29:14.560 You also, and I want to say this is so 0:29:14.640 --> 0:29:18.440 important because when we talk about potential, a lot of 0:29:18.480 --> 0:29:21.600 people start trying to produce something that God did not 0:29:21.720 --> 0:29:28.200 put inside of them. We got oranges wanting to be apples, 0:29:28.960 --> 0:29:38.040 Apples wanting to be kumquats, not a kum quat. You 0:29:38.080 --> 0:29:44.920 are a delicious red apple. You're gonna be a big, 0:29:45.040 --> 0:29:50.720 juicy red apple, but you want not be a kumquat. Yo. 0:29:50.800 --> 0:29:53.440 My barber told me a story the other day. His 0:29:53.520 --> 0:29:56.480 name is fly Ty. That's who you want to cut 0:29:56.480 --> 0:29:59.400 your hair he put fly in his name. I trust 0:29:59.480 --> 0:30:02.720 him with my f fade because he's fly Tie and 0:30:02.760 --> 0:30:05.760 he's been cutting my hair now he attends our University 0:30:05.880 --> 0:30:09.120 City location. I asked his permission to tell you this 0:30:09.160 --> 0:30:11.720 because I didn't want to embarrass him. But y'all, he 0:30:11.760 --> 0:30:15.640 told me the dumbest story ever the other day. And 0:30:15.720 --> 0:30:17.520 he was cutting my hair. And he has this bad 0:30:17.560 --> 0:30:20.040 habit of stopping cutting my hair while he tells me 0:30:20.080 --> 0:30:22.160 a fifteen minute story. And he needs to go to 0:30:22.240 --> 0:30:25.560 multitask school because I got things to do. He's cutting 0:30:25.560 --> 0:30:27.760 the clippers off and talking. But it's fine because I 0:30:27.840 --> 0:30:30.400 usually like his stories and his anecdotes, but this one 0:30:30.440 --> 0:30:33.440 was dumb. Listen this. He told me a story. And 0:30:33.480 --> 0:30:35.960 I don't remember exactly what the year was, but years 0:30:35.960 --> 0:30:39.280 ago he was hosting because he's not only a barber, 0:30:39.320 --> 0:30:44.440 he's a host, a radio personality. He works for the Hornets. 0:30:45.080 --> 0:30:48.320 He's very involved in the community. He speaks to little kids, 0:30:48.360 --> 0:30:51.000 like every time he comes to cut my hair. He's 0:30:51.200 --> 0:30:53.680 recently spoken to a group of kids that same day, 0:30:53.960 --> 0:30:56.960 Anti DJ at a wedding, Anti cured cancer, and he 0:30:57.000 --> 0:30:59.800 fought a fire on Providence Row. And he's just everywhere 0:30:59.840 --> 0:31:02.680 all the time. But he's sitting there telling me the 0:31:02.800 --> 0:31:05.200 story because we're talking about potential and what God has 0:31:05.200 --> 0:31:06.600 put in you, and we talk about this a lot. 0:31:06.640 --> 0:31:09.400 We talk about God. And I guess because my dad 0:31:09.960 --> 0:31:12.320 was a barber, I had just have a love for 0:31:12.600 --> 0:31:14.720 barber's and so the clippers start going, we start talking 0:31:14.960 --> 0:31:16.880 and we're talking about it, and he told me a 0:31:16.920 --> 0:31:21.920 story that jay Z came to a concert. I guess 0:31:22.000 --> 0:31:24.600 it was like in the nineties, before he was as 0:31:24.680 --> 0:31:28.240 popular as he is now, and the concert was half full, 0:31:28.760 --> 0:31:32.120 and fly Tie was one of the hosts for the concerts, 0:31:32.760 --> 0:31:35.720 and he said he observed jay Z during the concert 0:31:35.800 --> 0:31:38.800 talking to one of the members of a female group 0:31:38.840 --> 0:31:41.880 who was also on the concert bill called Destiny's Child, 0:31:44.360 --> 0:31:47.440 and he said that the concert was half full because 0:31:47.520 --> 0:31:50.640 jay Z was just on the come up, which would 0:31:50.680 --> 0:31:53.480 lead him to be some would say the greatest rapper 0:31:53.480 --> 0:31:56.720 of all time, depending on how you quantify that, it's 0:31:56.720 --> 0:31:58.920 a very strong case. But he said, I've since thought 0:31:58.960 --> 0:32:02.920 back to that day because jay Z and Beyonce were 0:32:02.960 --> 0:32:06.440 back there and I was watching their relationship develop before 0:32:06.480 --> 0:32:10.400 my eyes, and he's my same age, and I think 0:32:10.440 --> 0:32:15.720 often to myself. Look what he's done with his life 0:32:17.560 --> 0:32:23.880 and what have I done with mine? Now, of all 0:32:23.920 --> 0:32:30.240 the people in the Milky Way, for you to choose 0:32:30.280 --> 0:32:35.800 to use as a standard of how successful your life is, 0:32:36.960 --> 0:32:41.200 you just had to go get jay Z jay Z, 0:32:42.200 --> 0:32:48.960 not even not even Lil Wayne jay Z. You had 0:32:49.000 --> 0:32:54.440 to pick the most influential rapper of our lifetime. So 0:32:54.480 --> 0:32:57.640 here's what he did. He just wanted to feel small 0:32:58.560 --> 0:33:03.680 so bad, rather than focusing on Look how gracious God 0:33:03.720 --> 0:33:06.640 has been to me. I asked his permission to say this, 0:33:06.720 --> 0:33:09.000 and he said I could, Instead of I'm gonna preach 0:33:09.000 --> 0:33:11.680 to him through the camera. He's listening right now instead 0:33:11.720 --> 0:33:14.320 of picking Look where I could have been if it 0:33:14.360 --> 0:33:17.120 hadn't been for the grace of God. Look how he 0:33:17.240 --> 0:33:20.640 raised me up. Look how he kept me alive. Look 0:33:20.720 --> 0:33:23.920 how I wasn't a statistic. Look how he's using me 0:33:24.000 --> 0:33:26.880 in ways I never could have imagined. Look how he 0:33:26.960 --> 0:33:29.640 could a gift in me. Look how he's been good 0:33:29.640 --> 0:33:42.280 to me. You are not jay Z. You are not 0:33:42.440 --> 0:33:47.200 supposed to be. So tell your neighbor you are not 0:33:47.760 --> 0:33:55.800 beyond saying. Tell him what I am Destiny's child and 0:33:55.960 --> 0:34:00.720 what God could inside of me? I said, what God 0:34:00.840 --> 0:34:04.680 put inside of me is looking for a place to grow. 0:34:05.080 --> 0:34:08.480 I'm going back to my school like a seed ready 0:34:08.520 --> 0:34:12.280 to grow. And don't judge the significance by the size 0:34:12.280 --> 0:34:21.080 of the seed. I'm fly freaking tie clippers in one 0:34:21.160 --> 0:34:25.680 hand and microphone in the other. I got potential, but 0:34:25.800 --> 0:34:28.120 I gotta let go of what I think I'm supposed 0:34:28.160 --> 0:34:37.600 to be to become what I am. You know how 0:34:37.600 --> 0:34:43.000 sometimes you get this parental guilt, this feeling of like 0:34:43.040 --> 0:34:45.640 I watched a football game with the boys last night 0:34:45.960 --> 0:34:48.040 and I came to tears because there was a commercial 0:34:48.400 --> 0:34:52.160 of a man taking his sun fishing. I was choked up. 0:34:52.200 --> 0:34:54.960 I said, I'm so sorry, boys, I never took you 0:34:55.040 --> 0:34:58.920 fishing because I'm thinking that's where the lessons of life 0:34:58.960 --> 0:35:05.080 need to happen. On the boat, were like, it's okay, dad, 0:35:05.960 --> 0:35:12.160 it's fine Swiss football, but it can just always make 0:35:12.200 --> 0:35:13.640 you feel like, well, I need to be a dad 0:35:13.719 --> 0:35:19.080 like that. You know. The truth of the matter is, 0:35:19.239 --> 0:35:21.120 Holly was telling me how her dad used to take 0:35:21.120 --> 0:35:22.520 her out on the boat all the time. I was like, 0:35:22.920 --> 0:35:25.200 do you ever feel like you've married the wrong guy 0:35:25.280 --> 0:35:27.520 that I've never taken our family out on a boat once. 0:35:27.560 --> 0:35:31.440 I don't even know how to drive a boat. She said, No, 0:35:31.560 --> 0:35:34.799 I hated it on the boat. My dad liked the boat. 0:35:35.000 --> 0:35:36.640 See how I did it though, I got to take 0:35:36.680 --> 0:35:38.600 my kids out on a boat to be a good dad. 0:35:39.320 --> 0:35:41.120 It's just a small thing. I understand. It could be 0:35:41.200 --> 0:35:44.160 much deeper than that. You can start thinking when you 0:35:44.200 --> 0:35:48.920 are supposed to have a family, buy anything. I am 0:35:49.000 --> 0:35:52.560 supposed to be further along in my career. But when 0:35:52.560 --> 0:35:54.920 you let go of what is supposed to be in 0:35:54.960 --> 0:36:05.560 your mind, when you let that go, and the sower 0:36:05.640 --> 0:36:09.360 has to release the seed. I feel God calling some 0:36:09.440 --> 0:36:12.719 of us to release some things, even to release bitterness 0:36:14.960 --> 0:36:18.600 some of us. If we would release that root of bitterness, 0:36:18.719 --> 0:36:26.279 we would reap a harvest of peace. And it has 0:36:26.320 --> 0:36:32.640 to be released. God is calling me to release some things, 0:36:33.800 --> 0:36:40.000 release some expectations, and released my white knuckle ane agram 0:36:40.040 --> 0:36:45.719 ie perfectionist ideas. Did I get it right one? Yeah? 0:36:45.840 --> 0:36:49.960 I don't know. All I do know is this, Sometimes 0:36:49.960 --> 0:36:53.319 I cut off my circulation and strangle the seat of 0:36:53.320 --> 0:36:57.400 opportunities because of my need to control it. So when 0:36:57.440 --> 0:37:00.239 you throw your net on the other side, what I 0:37:00.239 --> 0:37:01.880 love about sewing, you don't have to be in a 0:37:01.880 --> 0:37:08.399 good mood to do it. The seed doesn't care if 0:37:08.400 --> 0:37:11.919 you've carefully dropped it or threw it and walked off. 0:37:12.520 --> 0:37:15.960 Is still where it's supposed to be. Peter said, we've 0:37:15.960 --> 0:37:18.880 worked hard all night and caught nothing, but because you 0:37:19.000 --> 0:37:21.720 say so, And he got blessed while he was rolling 0:37:21.760 --> 0:37:23.920 his eyes, because he had the faith to do what 0:37:24.040 --> 0:37:26.799 Jesus said. You got to sew it when you feel it, 0:37:29.400 --> 0:37:36.680 and sew it when you don't. Now, from the seed's perspective, 0:37:36.840 --> 0:37:42.080 being planted as a different experience, because the sower has 0:37:42.160 --> 0:37:50.880 to release, but the seed has to remain, and both 0:37:51.560 --> 0:38:00.799 are so important, so important mean to do that, I 0:38:00.880 --> 0:38:10.640 promise so important to remain thirteen years before he knew 0:38:10.680 --> 0:38:18.400 what that mental meant, thirteen years of being planted, correctively speaking, 0:38:18.560 --> 0:38:21.400 Why does Peter get so much airtime in pulpits for 0:38:21.480 --> 0:38:25.359 stepping out of a boat. That same thing that made 0:38:25.400 --> 0:38:27.520 him step out of the boat made him run when 0:38:27.600 --> 0:38:33.200 Jesus went to the cross. How about John who stayed 0:38:33.200 --> 0:38:36.400 in the boat and when Jesus was on the cross, 0:38:36.520 --> 0:38:38.479 stayed by his side to take care of his mom. 0:38:40.440 --> 0:38:45.000 But we don't celebrate those who stay. We don't celebrate 0:38:45.040 --> 0:38:51.040 those who who just do it. We make a tagline 0:38:51.040 --> 0:38:52.919 out of it for a shoe company, but we don't 0:38:52.960 --> 0:38:58.760 celebrate it. In other words, the seed has to remain 0:38:59.600 --> 0:39:03.960 in order to reproduce. Now, I wonder why we think 0:39:04.719 --> 0:39:06.520 that God can grow what he wants to grow in 0:39:06.560 --> 0:39:10.919 our life when we keep uprooting what he's doing every 0:39:11.000 --> 0:39:19.120 time it gets uncomfortable. And the soil is so important 0:39:19.520 --> 0:39:22.200 to the growth of the seed that you can have 0:39:22.320 --> 0:39:25.640 a really good seed and it can become nothing, not 0:39:25.680 --> 0:39:28.160 because it was nothing because it was surrounded by something 0:39:28.200 --> 0:39:31.880 that wasn't worthy of its presence. You can put a 0:39:31.920 --> 0:39:37.200 really good seed. This is the power of environment that 0:39:37.440 --> 0:39:42.160 what is around the seed determines whether what is within 0:39:42.239 --> 0:39:49.560 the seed comes out of the seed. And I don't 0:39:49.600 --> 0:39:52.520 know if this is pertinent to anyone in the area 0:39:52.560 --> 0:39:54.799 of who you spend the dominant amount of your time 0:39:54.840 --> 0:40:00.759 hanging out with, but what's around it eventually determine whether 0:40:00.840 --> 0:40:04.319 what is within it comes out of it. You can 0:40:04.400 --> 0:40:08.280 have really good stuff in you, but if everything around 0:40:08.360 --> 0:40:12.000 you is just dark and noise, and everything around you, 0:40:12.080 --> 0:40:14.800 if there's no light to it, if there's no hydration 0:40:14.960 --> 0:40:17.560 to it, it won't take root, and so if it 0:40:17.600 --> 0:40:20.439 doesn't take root, it can't come out. As a matter 0:40:20.480 --> 0:40:23.160 of fact, God sent me to speak to some people saying, 0:40:23.320 --> 0:40:26.239 there's nothing wrong with the seed. There's nothing wrong with 0:40:26.280 --> 0:40:29.400 who you are. It's just what you've surrounded yourself with 0:40:29.760 --> 0:40:33.040 in your mind, in your heart, on your feed, in 0:40:33.120 --> 0:40:39.520 your time, on your schedule. I'm looking for plow ground. 0:40:40.840 --> 0:40:43.359 I want other people in my life who can help 0:40:43.400 --> 0:40:46.000 bring out I want to join an eGroup. Oh watch 0:40:46.040 --> 0:40:48.839 that plum. This dude's a professional. I want to get 0:40:48.840 --> 0:40:51.760 around some good soil because I want the good stuff 0:40:51.760 --> 0:40:53.920 that is in me to come forth out of me. 0:41:00.080 --> 0:41:01.799 How many of y'all if you could put your kids 0:41:01.840 --> 0:41:03.839 around the right people, you just know your kid would 0:41:03.840 --> 0:41:10.239 be a doctor. I know they would. It's the environment. 0:41:10.320 --> 0:41:13.760 But watch this, Why do we think God can bless 0:41:13.840 --> 0:41:17.600 us to grow when every time the soil gets uncomfortable, 0:41:17.800 --> 0:41:25.200 we go to another church. You feel that tension shift. 0:41:26.320 --> 0:41:30.960 I did when I see people in this church who 0:41:30.960 --> 0:41:33.960 have been here ten years. When I see people in 0:41:34.000 --> 0:41:37.680 this church who would be planted, I realized that the 0:41:37.719 --> 0:41:42.480 potential of what is in someone can only really manifest 0:41:42.640 --> 0:41:46.480 when it has time to mature, and when we walk around. 0:41:46.520 --> 0:41:49.160 You know, Oh, I don't like that. You know, I'm 0:41:49.200 --> 0:41:51.880 going over here to a new church. I don't like 0:41:51.960 --> 0:41:53.920 the way they talk to me. I'm going over here. 0:41:53.920 --> 0:41:56.160 I'm gonna make some new friends. You know what, you 0:41:56.239 --> 0:42:00.640 are taking the old you to the new friendships. And 0:42:00.719 --> 0:42:03.359 so whatever, y'all like this, y'all like this at all. 0:42:03.360 --> 0:42:05.560 I'm gonna solve this seed anyway. I'm gonna hit some 0:42:05.600 --> 0:42:10.640 good ground with this seed. It's so important that you 0:42:10.800 --> 0:42:14.480 stay sometimes, and I know sometimes you gotta find better ground. 0:42:14.680 --> 0:42:18.800 But sometimes it's our inability to just let what God 0:42:18.960 --> 0:42:23.320 is doing in our life work. He uses some uncomfortable things. 0:42:23.560 --> 0:42:26.200 But if you never stay, you'll never see it. If 0:42:26.239 --> 0:42:28.879 you just keep moving to a new city every time, 0:42:28.920 --> 0:42:31.560 you make a mess out of your relationships so you 0:42:31.600 --> 0:42:34.800 can start over with the same seed that you carried 0:42:34.840 --> 0:42:38.480 in the last relationship, you will never see the potential 0:42:38.600 --> 0:42:50.600 of it. So I gotta I gotta stay. I gotta 0:42:50.719 --> 0:42:55.759 stay in faith. I gotta remain in the vine so 0:42:55.840 --> 0:43:00.840 I can bear my shrewe, so I can become what 0:43:00.960 --> 0:43:06.600 I already am in potential form. And only God knows 0:43:07.040 --> 0:43:10.120 how long it's going to take for me to become 0:43:10.160 --> 0:43:14.560 all that I am. When John was writing about it 0:43:14.880 --> 0:43:18.400 in his epistle, he said, see what great love the 0:43:18.400 --> 0:43:20.120 Father is lavished on us, that we should be called 0:43:20.120 --> 0:43:22.840 the children of God. And I watch this in verse two, beloved, 0:43:22.840 --> 0:43:36.040 we are God's children. Now. Now when I am forgiven, 0:43:37.960 --> 0:43:42.840 I'm full of the Holy Spirit, I am well abeled, 0:43:42.840 --> 0:43:48.759 I am strong and courageous. That's in me now. But 0:43:48.880 --> 0:43:55.640 what we shall be has not yet appeared, and it 0:43:55.680 --> 0:44:02.080 can only appear if it remains. It will be revealed 0:44:03.120 --> 0:44:11.000 if you remain thirteen years for potential to be reviewed. 0:44:12.360 --> 0:44:17.480 Most of us won't do it for thirteen days, thirteen 0:44:17.600 --> 0:44:24.560 years to see what it is, thirteen years of being planted. 0:44:26.360 --> 0:44:29.960 And then he did watch this, Elisha did twice as 0:44:30.000 --> 0:44:39.640 many miracles as Elijah did. You don't know what's in 0:44:39.680 --> 0:44:43.560 you yet. You don't know what the broken bread of 0:44:43.560 --> 0:44:46.520 your disappointed expectations is going to multiply into if you 0:44:46.600 --> 0:44:48.719 leave it in God's hands a little while. You don't 0:44:48.760 --> 0:44:54.279 know yet. The enemy can't remove anything that God put 0:44:54.320 --> 0:44:56.239 in you, But if he can keep you from sewing it, 0:44:56.320 --> 0:44:59.560 you will never know what it would have been. If 0:44:59.560 --> 0:45:03.080 he can get to quit give up in your life 0:45:03.440 --> 0:45:06.400 stop hoping, turn into a cynic. If he can get 0:45:06.440 --> 0:45:08.799 you to stop sewing. I'm preaching to people who have 0:45:08.880 --> 0:45:13.759 stopped sewing because of what you didn't know. Because you 0:45:13.800 --> 0:45:18.400 didn't know, they quit too soon. It's too soon to 0:45:18.440 --> 0:45:21.360 tell what it's going to be. It's too soon to 0:45:21.400 --> 0:45:24.319 tell if it made a difference. Is too soon to 0:45:24.360 --> 0:45:27.000 tell whether or not it was worth It is too 0:45:27.120 --> 0:45:29.960 soon for you to start. Every time you take the 0:45:30.040 --> 0:45:32.400 seed and pluck it out, to look at it and 0:45:32.520 --> 0:45:35.680 judge it, you interrupt the process by which it grows. 0:45:36.800 --> 0:45:42.240 So stop judging it, and keep watering it, and keep sewing, 0:45:42.920 --> 0:45:47.840 and keep trusting. Because Elisha goes on not only to 0:45:47.880 --> 0:45:50.839 part the waters of the Jordan River, which was his 0:45:50.880 --> 0:45:54.520 first miracle, but then he gets to Jericho and they 0:45:54.560 --> 0:45:57.280 need a healing in the water, and so he heals 0:45:57.480 --> 0:46:00.759 the poisonous waters his second miracle. And then he calls 0:46:00.840 --> 0:46:03.359 she bearers out of the woods to kill some little 0:46:03.400 --> 0:46:05.520 boys because he was still working this thing out. Because 0:46:05.600 --> 0:46:07.960 potential can be tricky at first, and so you can 0:46:08.000 --> 0:46:10.560 misuse your power in an earlier stage of your life. 0:46:10.640 --> 0:46:13.160 Never forget that the thing that makes you powerful makes 0:46:13.160 --> 0:46:16.640 you vulnerable and unguarded strength as a double weakness. It's 0:46:16.680 --> 0:46:20.000 all about potential. But everything he did was about potential. 0:46:20.239 --> 0:46:22.920 From the moment he was plowing. It was about potential, 0:46:23.120 --> 0:46:25.719 from the moment that he told the kings, hey, dig 0:46:25.760 --> 0:46:29.360 the ditches in preparation for the rain that is not 0:46:29.520 --> 0:46:32.640 coming from a natural source, but God is going to 0:46:32.760 --> 0:46:35.279 send it. When you do a natural thing, it was 0:46:35.360 --> 0:46:39.160 preparation for the potential of the power of God. Like 0:46:39.480 --> 0:46:42.200 the woman's oil. See, you never judge what can be 0:46:42.280 --> 0:46:44.840 in the resource by the size of the current supply. 0:46:45.280 --> 0:46:47.560 So the woman's like, oh, it's not much. Oh I'm 0:46:47.560 --> 0:46:50.200 not very good. Oh I'm not very much. Oh I'm 0:46:50.200 --> 0:46:52.759 not very known. Oh I don't have many followers. Oh 0:46:52.800 --> 0:46:55.560 I'm not Jesus jay Z. Oh I'm not Beyonce. Say, 0:46:55.719 --> 0:46:57.879 oh I don't have that. I can't sing like that, 0:46:58.000 --> 0:47:00.319 I can't move like that. But a little bit of 0:47:00.360 --> 0:47:03.160 oil flowed into a lot of jars. Wasn't about the 0:47:03.200 --> 0:47:08.359 amount of oil. It was about the amount of jars. 0:47:11.520 --> 0:47:14.920 When the Shunamite woman made him a guest room, he 0:47:15.040 --> 0:47:17.640 prophesied she would have a baby. She had given up 0:47:17.640 --> 0:47:20.440 on that. She didn't even believe that was possible. She 0:47:20.480 --> 0:47:22.799 didn't even know that was in her until the Word 0:47:22.800 --> 0:47:25.240 of God spoke it over her. You don't know what's 0:47:25.280 --> 0:47:29.959 in you. You don't know what's in your kids. Don't 0:47:30.040 --> 0:47:33.600 judge it too soon. They might turn out better than 0:47:33.640 --> 0:47:37.040 all the straight A students. The straight A students might 0:47:37.080 --> 0:47:40.720 be working for them. You don't know yet. It's too 0:47:41.360 --> 0:47:49.359 soon to tell. My God, who is this for? God 0:47:49.440 --> 0:47:53.440 is just all over me for somebody today. I know 0:47:53.520 --> 0:47:55.960 when He's fixed through me like this. That is for 0:47:56.080 --> 0:48:00.680 one person. I don't know who I'm sewing this, but 0:48:00.800 --> 0:48:06.000 it'll come back. I'll hear about it. I release this 0:48:06.080 --> 0:48:10.080 word over your life today. I release it over your 0:48:10.120 --> 0:48:15.400 life like Elijah released a mantle on Elisha's shoulders that 0:48:15.480 --> 0:48:19.080 when this word hits you, the potential of what God 0:48:19.120 --> 0:48:23.760 has put in you, every gift, skill, experience, plan, everything 0:48:23.760 --> 0:48:26.680 that God has brought you through, even all the pain, 0:48:28.520 --> 0:48:33.799 that's a potential miracle. That's a seed of the word 0:48:33.840 --> 0:48:39.319 of God. The seed seeds a small thing. Elisha told 0:48:39.400 --> 0:48:42.040 name and go down to the Jordan dip seven times. 0:48:42.239 --> 0:48:44.359 You know when he was healed, Not on the first time, 0:48:44.560 --> 0:48:46.680 not on the second time, not on the third time, 0:48:46.840 --> 0:49:03.200 on the seventh time potential is revealed in process. One day, 0:49:03.239 --> 0:49:05.840 a young prophet was chopping some wood to build a 0:49:05.880 --> 0:49:07.840 school for the prophets, and the axe had fell in 0:49:07.880 --> 0:49:10.799 the water. Elisha showed him where. When the young men 0:49:10.840 --> 0:49:13.520 showed him where it had fallen, something came on the 0:49:13.560 --> 0:49:17.400 axe head. It floated to the surface. The potential for 0:49:17.480 --> 0:49:19.919 God to speak to a small thing in your life, 0:49:20.360 --> 0:49:22.279 it's just as easy as it is for him to 0:49:22.280 --> 0:49:26.200 speak to a big thing. See all that was on 0:49:26.960 --> 0:49:33.680 Elisha in potential form, and all of it manifested when 0:49:33.719 --> 0:49:38.919 he planted himself in the purpose of God. So good 0:49:38.960 --> 0:49:44.680 to me. There's so much still in you, man, there's 0:49:44.680 --> 0:49:47.680 so much still in you, but you won't know if 0:49:47.719 --> 0:49:52.560 you stop sewing. So now follow Elisha all the way 0:49:52.600 --> 0:49:56.760 to the last miracle he performs. The Bible records, depending 0:49:56.800 --> 0:50:02.239 on how you divide it, like fifteen miracles that Elisha performs. 0:50:02.280 --> 0:50:07.759 Elijah performed eight, so it's roughly doubled the amount of miracles. 0:50:09.480 --> 0:50:13.200 The double portion that Elisha asked for, he got it. 0:50:14.520 --> 0:50:17.759 And the last thing we see him do, he's with 0:50:17.880 --> 0:50:21.160 this king who's being attacked him. He tells the king 0:50:21.280 --> 0:50:24.240 to take these arrows in his hand and start striking 0:50:24.280 --> 0:50:28.279 the ground with the arrows. Every time he struck the 0:50:28.280 --> 0:50:30.160 ground with an arrow as an act of faith that 0:50:30.239 --> 0:50:34.080 represented a potential victory that God would give him. And 0:50:34.160 --> 0:50:39.000 when he struck the ground three times and stopped, it 0:50:39.200 --> 0:50:47.080 upset Elisha. And Elisha said, you were using this device 0:50:48.400 --> 0:50:54.800 so far beneath its potential. And he was angry because 0:50:54.840 --> 0:50:57.960 he saw the victories that could have been if the 0:50:58.040 --> 0:51:05.000 king had believed in his potential. And you know what's 0:51:05.040 --> 0:51:11.040 really weird. After everything that Elisha did one miracle short 0:51:11.080 --> 0:51:15.200 of exactly twice as many miracles as his mentor, Elijah 0:51:15.239 --> 0:51:18.640 did eight Elisha did fifteen. The king strikes the ground 0:51:18.719 --> 0:51:26.040 and stops and forfeits his potential, and Elisha is angry. 0:51:26.120 --> 0:51:29.160 And the next verse says, in One Kings thirteen twenty, 0:51:29.920 --> 0:51:37.040 Elisha died and they buried him. Only this he wasn't buried, 0:51:37.760 --> 0:51:41.480 He was planted because there was still one more miracle 0:51:41.560 --> 0:51:51.440 left in him that hadn't been tapped yet. There is 0:51:51.520 --> 0:51:57.040 someone who still has a miracle in your bones. And 0:51:57.280 --> 0:52:01.240 something that you have buried is trying to come alive. 0:52:01.320 --> 0:52:05.000 While I'm preaching today, Something that you have buried a 0:52:05.080 --> 0:52:08.960 hope or a character, element of your character, or something 0:52:09.000 --> 0:52:11.960 that you have believed God for and is still in 0:52:12.000 --> 0:52:16.120 your bones. So they buried Elisha and one day, the 0:52:16.160 --> 0:52:20.719 Bible says, as they were conducting a funeral, Oh, so 0:52:20.800 --> 0:52:24.000 much potential in this room. There is so much potential 0:52:24.040 --> 0:52:26.759 in this room. You have no idea the potential that 0:52:26.880 --> 0:52:29.920 is in this room. As they were conducting a funeral, 0:52:29.960 --> 0:52:34.799 the Bible says that every springtime the Moabite raiders would 0:52:34.840 --> 0:52:38.560 come in and they would invade the land during harvest time. 0:52:39.120 --> 0:52:42.759 Isn't that interesting that the attack always happens when the 0:52:42.800 --> 0:52:48.600 harvest is coming. Y'all sleeping on the preacher. Now, I 0:52:48.640 --> 0:52:50.680 know I'll wear you out, but stay with me three minutes, 0:52:50.719 --> 0:52:53.760 and I promise you I'm gonna close this. The attack 0:52:54.000 --> 0:52:57.360 always happens the enemy. If he can't keep you from sewing, 0:52:57.640 --> 0:52:59.879 he wants you to walk away when you're about to reap. 0:53:00.400 --> 0:53:02.760 He wants you to walk away just at the moment. 0:53:03.160 --> 0:53:06.360 And if you stop now, you won't know what could 0:53:06.360 --> 0:53:13.600 have been. So the Bible says that there was a 0:53:13.640 --> 0:53:16.400 man that was being buried. There was a funeral in progress. 0:53:17.160 --> 0:53:20.160 Verse twenty one says that when the band was coming, 0:53:20.320 --> 0:53:22.640 they got in a hurry and they threw the man 0:53:22.760 --> 0:53:26.600 watched this on the grave of Elisha. Now, when they 0:53:26.640 --> 0:53:30.319 did that, it messed up the funeral, because when they 0:53:30.360 --> 0:53:34.840 buried Elisha, he still had one more miracle in his bones. 0:53:35.600 --> 0:53:40.680 So now when the dead thing hit the bones of Elisha, 0:53:41.200 --> 0:53:43.960 watch what God's about to do in your life. As 0:53:44.000 --> 0:53:47.399 soon as the man touched the bones of Elisha, he 0:53:47.480 --> 0:53:51.840 revived and stood up on his feet. What are you saying, preacher, 0:53:52.160 --> 0:53:55.120 I'm saying, if you'll throw it on the bones, if 0:53:55.120 --> 0:53:57.880 you will believe in the power of God, if you 0:53:57.960 --> 0:54:03.800 will declare resurrection power over everything you've sown, nothing is wasted, 0:54:04.160 --> 0:54:08.320 nothing is over, nothing is finished. If God is in it, 0:54:08.320 --> 0:54:13.320 it's shot. Come Lord, come on, give him a great praise. 0:54:25.239 --> 0:54:30.760 I believe in resurrection. I believe God is a grave ropper. 0:54:32.000 --> 0:54:35.040 I believe that the bones of Elisha still have power. 0:54:35.560 --> 0:54:37.799 I believe that the word of the Lord can still 0:54:37.840 --> 0:54:40.480 hit a bear and wound. I believe that the seed 0:54:40.480 --> 0:54:43.759 that you have sown, it was not buried, It was 0:54:43.960 --> 0:54:48.480 planted in the soil of God's faithfulness. Come on, let's 0:54:48.520 --> 0:54:53.160 touch the bones today. Let's go let's touch the bones. 0:54:53.440 --> 0:54:57.040 Let's go to the empty grave where they bury Jesus. 0:54:57.480 --> 0:55:02.600 But God was planting him. He was the firstborn. Come on, minnie, brethren. 0:55:02.920 --> 0:55:05.960 And when he went down, it to the earth. When 0:55:06.040 --> 0:55:11.520 he went down it to the earth, how many no army? 0:55:11.640 --> 0:55:17.200 Once Sunday he didn't stay there, but he got up 0:55:18.719 --> 0:55:36.560 and our kids up to come on, desers. If you 0:55:36.719 --> 0:55:45.520 received this word, gets your hands out, Come on every location, 0:55:46.239 --> 0:55:53.520 get up. I need us to keep our hands lifted, 0:55:53.520 --> 0:55:58.120 because we believe in resurrection. We believe in second chances. 0:55:58.760 --> 0:56:02.680 We believe in New Bocano. We believe. Does anybody believe this? 0:56:05.480 --> 0:56:08.919 Does anybody believe what this verse says? The tomb where 0:56:09.200 --> 0:56:18.600 soldiers watch in van was bowed for he day stay 0:56:18.640 --> 0:56:31.280 down right there his body? Man, Oh God, I was praying. 0:56:34.000 --> 0:56:41.799 I was praying last night about this gospel message. And 0:56:41.840 --> 0:56:45.239 I had to tell you what God showed me that 0:56:45.360 --> 0:56:54.480 it wasn't a grave, it was a garden, the tum 0:56:54.640 --> 0:57:05.720 where soldiers watched in vans Fuda. And after three days 0:57:05.760 --> 0:57:09.960 what happens? By how many of you believe in resurrection? 0:57:10.680 --> 0:57:14.160 I need every hand lift and every voice raise is wrong? 0:57:14.719 --> 0:57:26.160 The O God is wrong. The fra. Yes, it's coming up. 0:57:27.040 --> 0:57:40.280 It's coming up. Julie, Julie, He's get to all praise. 0:57:41.040 --> 0:57:49.600 We rise to consul, keep your relate, ju He's be 0:57:52.360 --> 0:58:01.440 all prace. We're oh. Thank you for join. Special thanks 0:58:01.440 --> 0:58:04.000 to those of you who give generously to this ministry. 0:58:04.360 --> 0:58:07.280 Is because of you that this ministry is possible. You 0:58:07.320 --> 0:58:09.680 can click the link in the description to give now, 0:58:10.280 --> 0:58:14.160 or visit Elevationchurch dot org slash podcast for more information 0:58:14.720 --> 0:58:17.840 and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe. You 0:58:17.880 --> 0:58:19.920 can share it with your friends. You can click the 0:58:19.960 --> 0:58:22.240 share button, take a screenshot and share it on your 0:58:22.240 --> 0:58:25.240 social stories and tag us at Elevation Church. Thanks again 0:58:25.280 --> 0:58:31.440 for listening. God bless you